Apples, Apples, Apples

We learned lots of things about apples. We had fun painting the apple tree through the seasons. Thanks to Katy's mom for helping us paint our hands to make our apple trees. We made colorful apple men to hang in our room also.

Nature Walk

Last week's reading story was Todd's Box. Just like Todd we went on a walk in the park. We collected things to make a nature collage. You can read our writing about the project and see a video of our experience on our website.

http://www.robinsonschools.com/wes/teachers/1/corn/nature_collage_07.htm

All About Ants

Earlier this month our class learned lots of things about ants. We had a story in our reading book about ants and read lots of ant books. At the end of the week we worked on a project to help us remember what we had learned. The class made ants with their fingerprints for the cover. Inside each one built the ant life cycle, labeled the body parts of an ant, and made a booklet of facts they had learned about ants. You can see another video we made of our class reporting facts they learned about ants on our class website:

http://www.robinsonschools.com/wes/teachers/1/corn/august_september_2008.htm

New Playground

Our whole school gathered on our playground this morning to dedicate our new playground equipment. The boys and girls have been so excited to begin playing on the new equipment. Thanks so much to our PTO, parents who helped so much, and everyone in the community who contributed to making this possible.

Geoboards

The class used geoboards to practice shapes today.

The Star Spangled Banner

September 14, 2008 marks the 184th anniversary of the Star Spangled Banner. Mrs. Graham helped the students remember the anniversary of our national anthem by having the whole school join together to sing it before going to class on Friday morning.

Thanks to Katy's Mom!

Our story this week was a nonfiction story about ants. We have learned lots about ants this week. Today we wrote 3 things we learned that ants can do and one thing they can't. Thanks to Katy's mom for coming to tape the boys and girls reading what they wrote.

Sentences In a Bag

This week we read the story Sam and the Bag. It was about a curious cat that wanted to climb into a bag with his cat friends. The boys and girls worked with a partner or two to unscramble some sentences in a bag. They worked great together and used clues such as looking for a capital letter to begin a sentence, a punctuation at the end, and what made sense. I think they are becoming super readers!

Casey Shares Her Max and Jan Story

Casey shared her Max and Jan story with her classmates.

Jalyne's Further Adventures of Max and Jan

The class enjoyed hearing Jalyne's story about Max and Jan.

Kyra's Story

After reading a short booklet to practice the short a sound I challenged the class to write a story about what the characters might do next. Kyra wrote this story all by herself at home last night. The boys and girls enjoyed her sharing it with the class today.

Computer Class

The boys and girls had a great time experimenting with Tux Paint in computer today. It is a free download from the following site if you would like to use it at home also:
http://www.tuxpaint.org/
Casey was our Star of the Day today. In reading we practiced short a words today by highlighting them in sentences on the SMART Board and then choosing a picture that went with each sentence. We read a silly story about a mixup with a ham and a hat together. Ask your child to tell you about it. In math we graphed how we come to school and discovered that most of our students ride the bus each morning.